have a say in how their work is used. However, having the freedom and being able to use it are two different things. If it doesn’t work well, it’s hard for users to ask permission and hard for creators to give it and get rewarded. The Copyright Hub helps the whole thing work the

connected to their work. Plus, it can all be automated, starting with a single click. A simple, hassle-free process for all – sounds great, doesn’t it? If you think so, then you can help copyright done right become a reality.

Whether you want to be paid fairly for your work, only give permission for certain things, simply be given credit or keep your work private, The Copyright Hub makes it a simple process. If you want to get permission to use someone else’s work we make it easy to find them and ask. Which is just as well, because we’re all creators now, and we’re all users too.

We believe that our technology needs to be able to work for the whole Internet. It needs to be available, for free, for everyone, to use everywhere however makes sense to them. We want to enable everyone to benefit from their own creativity and that of others. Copyright isn’t just for “professionals”, it’s for everyone.

"The Copyright Hub is a brilliantly simple idea which enables
the exploitation of digital content by its owners. It's a British idea
with universal significance and it can be a catalyst for the growth
of our creative industries."

“The time is right for The Copyright Hub. New and future generations of musicians and creators will welcome a fresh approach that offers simpler administration of their copyrights, while taking full advantage of rapid advances in computer and mobile technology."

"The Copyright Hub recognises that Art, Science and Music must be protected by Copyright - a Human Right - which allows creators to benefit from the fruits of their labour, benefiting society as a whole."

"The realisation of Richard Hooper’s vision of a hub to facilitate the interaction between people wanting to use different types of creative content and rights holders is a remarkable achievement. The Copyright Hub promises to demystify copyright

and so help to engender a healthier respect for what is the cornerstone of publishing and the entire creative sector. PLS is proud to have been associated with its development and looks forward to seeing the Hub become an integral part of the worldwide copyright landscape."

that people know where to go to get the licences they need and for this to be easy. The Copyright Hub is making an essential contribution in doing just that and is an effort that is warmly welcomed and fully supported by PRS for Music."

"At the Digital Catapult we passionately believe the Hub creates an open platform for the UK - and our amazing creative talent - to be global leaders in the next phase of the Digital Creative economy. So partnering to make the Copyright Hub a reality was a no brainer for us and seeing it happen is incredibly exciting."

The Copyright Hub is being developed in partnership with the Digital Catapult and has been funded and supported by a huge range of organisations and individuals, some of whom you can see below. These and many others who have given time, money, expertise and ideas to us and are the reason we exist and continue to thrive.

Hub Applications are proposals from organisations and individuals to create real applications using The Copyright Hub technology. Here are a few we’re working on right now – and there are dozens more to follow. These applications are working with various content, including images, text, video and music in a wide variety of ways.

"All too often we hear that the law of copyright and licensing of digital works is just too complex online, and that it is somehow holding back progress of the digital economy. The Copyright Hub proves the naysayers wrong and sits at the very heart of the digital economy, hiding complexity and making copyright work in the digital age for rightsholders and users alike."

"Individual photographers struggle to be viable in the shadow of the large agencies dominating the internet. By simplifying and automating the licensing of our work the Copyright Hub will help us to remain visible and competitive in our increasingly pressurised industry."

“The creation of a centralised “safe house” for copyright creators to trade their intellectual property through effective licensing is an eminently sensible idea. The Copyright Hub will be a very welcome conduit and enabler to push trading boundaries through collaborative global opportunities”

"The Copyright Hub is the stepping stone to our digital future. The solutions it is generating give hope to composers and songwriters for new and legitimate income streams from their musical works. It is common sense that BASCA would support such an endeavour."

"The Copyright Hub is one of those simple, obvious ideas that take real brilliance and determination to put into practice. It meets the Adelphi Charter’s demand for copyright to be fair, user-friendly and efficient, and so meets market needs in the best sense. I predict it will be a hit and look forward to the international rollout."

"The Copyright Hub shows great British leadership in making copyright licensing simpler. UK Music's “Licensing Works” reported on the innovative and progressive work done in the music sector. The ability and ease of licensing music determines our market, worth £3.8bn to the UK economy and delivering £2.2bn exports. Our business is all about innovation and licensing. The support given by the Hub to the wider licensing environment is essential."

"CCC has supported the Copyright Hub since its inception and is pleased to see how it has developed and grown. We applaud the Hub's efforts to make it easy for people to obtain, use, and share the information they need, while protecting the interests of creators and other copyright holders."

“The Copyright Hub is a great British innovation in itself. Making it easier to find and use copyrighted works in the digital age is something that will help creators and consumers alike. Of course we are all creators now; publishing photos, videos, music, code, art and designs digitally and it is equally vital to educate how to protect intellectual property created by individuals.”

"Technology is ripping change through nearly every creative industry - transforming the user and creator experience - yet the rights management landscape remains as if typewriters and wax cylinders were the apple of the consumers eye - The Copyright Hub is a fine example of the positive disruption we should embrace"

"The Copyright Hub Foundation is something of a revolutionary facilitator to counter the evolutionary flux that creators and rights managers presently find themselves in. More meaningfully, "The Hub" stands to re-align direct channels of transaction and understanding between consumer and creator. A brilliant, ambitious and empowering example of making technology work for us in a time when, as creators, we feel increasingly powerless to technology's wield. It's basically preserving our future heritage - and that is priceless."

Whether you want to find out more, be included on our mailing list, comment on our project, give us a testimonial, make a donation or just tell us about your day, fill in the form below and a member of our team will get in touch.

“Anything that can make sense of the crazy world of internet copyright has to be welcomed. The Copyright Hub has the potential to bring common sense and fairness back to a fragmented and unregulated system where the creative community is being exploited to make huge amounts of money for other people.”

"The Copyright Hub is an idea whose time has come - it takes advantage of the internet to make licensing clear, simple and transparent, facilitating millions of transactions in a way that was simply impossible in an analogue age. It's a visionary initiative."

"The Copyright Hub is of central importance to my own vision of a copyright system which speaks to the everyday needs of consumers, as well as providing opportunities to build new business opportunities for rights owners."

"Creators are under greater pressure than ever before from infringement, from new legislation and from the imposition of unfair contracts. Creators need to be easily connected to their work and their potential clients so they can continue to produce it. The Copyright Hub is playing a leading role by creating the technological ecosystem essential to the UK creative industry's future."

"The Copyright Hub is leading the way in the creation of frictionless licensing for photography and other visual works. With the entire world as the marketplace, the Hub is establishing the new business model necessary for rights holders to benefit in an ongoing manner and for consumers to easily use and enjoy those works."

"Copyright is not broken, it's just a Ford Model-T, when what Creators now need is a Tesla Model- X. Copyright must become fluid, agile, effective, easy to use and properly understood, if it is to allow Creators to continue to Create and hence Society to Recreate. The Copyright Hub appreciates and anticipates the dimensions of the space they are working in and the people and forces working within it. The Hub's progressive and objective approach allows them a unique perspective from which to design fit-for-purpose digital solutions to the unfit-for-purpose analogue problems Creators and their Rights currently face"

"Educational establishments have the potential to make considerable use of the Hub since not all resources required in teaching and learning are covered by collective licences or exceptions. The Hub is providing a simple, transparent, direct and cost effective method to connect users and creators"

"BAPLA proudly supports the ambitions of the Copyright Hub to bring connectivity and education to creators and users of all kinds involved with copyright content. We are also delighted that photography was at the forefront of launching this incredible technology and look forward to seeing it develop into an 'everyday' process for all."

"When I first joined the music industry I nearly got fired because a senior executive didn't understand the difference between automatic licensing (having your right to negotiate taken away - a bad thing) and automated licensing (having a machine do the hard work on your terms - a very good thing). The Copyright Hub reduces that confusion and will ensure that automation is considered normal."

The history of The Copyright Hub

The Copyright Hub was formed following the recommendations of Richard Hooper and Dr Ros Lynch in their report ‘Copyright Works’; which built upon the Hargreaves review ‘Digital Opportunity: a review of intellectual property and growth’, for the British Government. Their recommendations were accepted by the government and the creative industries who have funded the work of the Copyright Hub over the past three years.

Since then The Copyright Hub has developed as a source of information about copyright, through its website at www.copyrighthub.co.uk. It has also become a valuable industry forum through its various working groups and boards.

The biggest piece of work has been development of the technology which allows copyright to work the way the internet works, using the native capabilities of internet technology. Working in partnership with the Digital Catapult we have taken on an ambitious project to create a new capability for the internet which can be freely adopted by anybody.

The technological heart of the Copyright Hub is a deceptively simple idea conceived by the CEO of the Copyright Hub, Dominic Young. The idea builds on the architecture, technical standards and vision of the Linked Content Coalition and on the model of the internet itself. You can learn more about how it works on this site below.

We are non-profit and rely on the support of the Creative Industries and others, together we are working to ensure that copyright is done right.

How It Works

The idea is simple. Using Copyright Hub technology, any piece of digital content – an image, a film clip, a piece of music, a text article, anything – can have a unique identifier that links it with the server of the owner or manager of the rights to that digital content.

So you can connect to it just as easily as you can connect to a web page, and a machine-to-machine conversation can take place, similar to the one which happens between your computer and a web server whenever you view a webpage.

This means getting and granting permission (or not) to use content can start to happen automatically, behind the scenes, using the Copyright Hub to make the connection. The conditions of use, and whether they are accepted, is entirely for the parties to agree. They can be commercial (payment, for example), or non-commercial (just for acknowledgement, perhaps) or creative in ways we haven’t thought of.

New works created can acquire their own unique identifiers easily, and licences can have their own unique identifiers too. Machine readable licences will allow platform owners to check quickly and easily whether the work was legitimate and facilitate licensing where needed.

Machine-to-machine permissions help ensure that the transaction costs of the licensing are as close to zero as possible. This unlocks a whole world of licensing for reuse in the middle and bottom of the market, which is characterised in the digital age by a high volume of low value transactions from the long tail of users and long tail of uses. This is all about widening the addressable market.

Making our work open source and free to use means it’s just as useful for those are aren’t pursuing commercial goals as those who are and it can be used all over the world. It’s for anyone who wants to take advantage of the freedom copyright gives them to have a say in what happens to their work. We, like the law, put creators in charge of their creations. What they do then us up to them.

In research we carried out in 2013, 38% of rights users who tried could not uncover the identity of the rights owner for the work they wanted to reuse. As a result they either did not reuse the work they wanted to or they pirated it. The Copyright Hub aims to reduce the hurdles for using content online, by making it easier for users to gain permission to use content and to give creators freedom to decide how their work can be used by others.

Privacy and Disclaimer

The Copyright Done Right website contains material for general information purposes only. It has been written for the purpose of providing information about the work of The Copyright Hub and encourage your support and involvement.

This website is operated by The Copyright Hub Foundation, incorporated (originally as The Copyright Hub Ltd) on 21st February 2013 at Companies House, Cardiff, company number 08413330. Registered office:

To the full extent permitted by law, we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, about the accuracy, availability, reliability, completeness or fitness for purpose of this site or any content on it. Should you rely on the information you find in the site, you do so entirely at your own risk.

To the full extent permitted by law, The Copyright Hub Foundation will not be liable for damage or loss whatsoever resulting from any connection with, or the use of this website.

This website provides links to the websites of other organisations and to information contained on external websites. The Copyright Hub does not control the content of these external sites in any way and therefore any views, information or recommendations found in the external sites are not necessarily endorsed or recommended by the Copyright Hub.

We cannot guarantee any temporary downtime of this site due to issues beyond our control and as such we will not be liable nor responsible for any issues, losses or anything whatsoever that arises due to this site being unavailable.

All logos, trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners and are protected by UK law. You must not copy, reuse or distribute any of the logos, text or images from this website without prior written consent.

When using the contact form on this website, the data you enter is stored within the website database and sent via email to the Copyright Administrator who will respond accordingly. Your comments will be used by the site administration team to improve the Copyright Hub website but your personal details will not be used for marketing purposes and will not be passed to third parties. If you have checked the appropriate opt-in box we will add you to our mailing list, you may unsubscribe using the links on our email updates. If you have checked the appropriate tickbox we may opt to publish your comments on our website. If you change your mind you should contact us at admin (at) copyrighthub.org

The site doesn’t use cookies but some third parties, such as Vimeo who host our video, may do.

If you use the form on our site it will be sent to us via a third party service, Formspree, who use the Mailgun API.

Thanks for Contacting Us

Thanks for your email – we’ll get back to you real soon

Pixelrights

“Pixelrights is a simple to use website builder with added Image Protection. Through the use of our patented image technology Pixelrights websites help to raise awareness of copyright online. And by working closely with the Copyright Hub on exciting new projects, the future is definitely looking very bright.”

Capture

“Capture is a leader in enterprise-grade media management systems and services that include rights, licensing, metadata, royalties and finance. The company has an experienced 25-strong team with 250 years’ aggregated industry experience and its clients include household names.

Capture is integrating Copyright Hub services into its existing extensive, modular, configurable product range, thus enabling its clients – that are wide and diverse and include large footprints in the cultural and commercial image agency sectors – to automatically obtain Copyright Hub identifiers.

Capture is also building a discovery service, so that once those assets have identifiers, Capture’s discovery tool can lead the end user back to the source for licensing.”

i-Publishing

“i-Publishing Consultants is an innovative consultancy that enables organisations to profit from creating new products, optimising their information management and engaging effectively with their communities of interest.

i-Publishing Consultants is working with the Copyright Hub and image rightsholders on the development and implementation of innovative digital image identification, licensing and discovery processes.”

Clixta

“Clixta is a photo sharing social network completely focused on the past. A simple & fun way to share your pre-digital images and and the stories surrounding them, saving them for future generations.

In conjunction with The Copyright Hub we are working hard to integrate new technology that aims to simplify and automate the process of getting & granting permission, making it easier to connect images to their rights holder by automatically assigning them a Hub Key.”

Testimonials

“If we are to maintain copyright in the digital age we need to make sure that people know where to go to get the licences they need and for this to be easy. The Copyright Hub is making an essential contribution in doing just that and is an effort that is warmly welcomed and fully supported by PRS for Music.”Robert Ashcroft – Chief Executive, PRS for Music

“The Copyright Hub is the stepping stone to our digital future. The solutions it is generating give hope to composers and songwriters for new and legitimate income streams from their musical works. It is common sense that BASCA would support such an endeavour.”Vick Bain – CEO, BASCA

“The Copyright Hub is a brilliantly simple idea which enables the exploitation of digital content by its owners. It’s a British idea with universal significance and it can be a catalyst for the growth of our creative industries.”Sir Peter Bazalgette – Arts Council England Council

“Properly supported and developed the Copyright Hub can become a powerful global resource for the creative industries placing the UK at the centre of copyright licensing worldwide.”Lord Clement-Jones CBE –House of Lords

“At the Digital Catapult we passionately believe the Hub creates an open platform for the UK – and our amazing creative talent – to be global leaders in the next phase of the Digital Creative economy. So partnering to make the Copyright Hub a reality was a no brainer for us and seeing it happen is incredibly exciting.”Neil Crockett – CEO, Digital Catapult

“The Copyright http://www.jump4loves.com/tours/ shows great British leadership in making copyright licensing simpler. UK Music’s “Licensing Works” reported on the innovative and progressive work done in the music sector. The ability and ease of licensing music determines our market, worth £3.8bn to the UK economy and delivering £2.2bn exports. Our business is all about innovation and licensing. The support given by the Hub to the wider licensing environment is essential.”Jo Dipple – CEO, UK Music

“The time is right for The Copyright Hub. New and future generations of musicians and creators will welcome a fresh approach that offers simpler administration of their copyrights, while taking full advantage of rapid advances in computer and mobile technology.”Thomas Dolby – Professor of Music

“BAPLA proudly supports the ambitions of the Copyright Hub to bring connectivity and education to creators and users of all kinds involved with copyright content. We are also delighted that photography was at the forefront of launching this incredible technology and look forward to seeing it develop into an ‘everyday’ process for all.”Isabelle Doran – Chairperson, British Association of Picture Libraries & Agencies (BAPLA)

“Creators are under greater pressure than ever before from infringement, from new legislation and from the imposition of unfair contracts. Creators need to be easily connected to their work and their potential clients so they can continue to produce it. The Copyright Hub is playing a leading role by creating the technological ecosystem essential to the UK creative industry’s future.”EPUK – Editorial Photographers UK

“The realisation of Richard Hooper’s vision of a hub to facilitate the interaction between people wanting to use different types of creative content and rights holders is a remarkable achievement. The Copyright Hub promises to demystify copyright and so help to engender a healthier respect for what is the cornerstone of publishing and the entire creative sector. PLS is proud to have been associated with its development and looks forward to seeing the Hub become an integral part of the worldwide copyright landscape.”Sarah Faulder – Chief Executive, Publishers Licensing Society

“The Copyright Hub is surely moving in the right direction in making licensed uses of copyrighted works more desirable than unlicensed ones, to the benefit of creators and users alike.”Paul Goldstein – Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

“The Copyright Hub is a key enabler to make the digital content market work better, work more democratically across the globe, opening up whole new possibilities for creators.”Francis Gurry – Director General, WIPO

“The Copyright Hub is of central importance to my own vision of a copyright system which speaks to the everyday needs of consumers, as well as providing opportunities to build new business opportunities for rights owners.”Professor Ian Hargreaves CBE – Cardiff University and author of the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property

“The Copyright Hub is an enabling technology for UK plc – one of the most important initiatives for the media industry I have ever come across.”Hermann Hauser –Amadeus Capital

“Individual photographers struggle to be viable in the shadow of the large agencies dominating the internet. By simplifying and automating the licensing of our work the Copyright Hub will help us to remain visible and competitive in our increasingly pressurised industry.”David Hoffman – David Hoffman Photo Library

“The Copyright Hub has in three short years helped change the narrative in the UK about copyright and softened the copyright wars between tech companies and creative companies.”Richard Hooper CBE – Chairman, The Copyright Hub Foundation

“The Copyright Hub is one of those simple, obvious ideas that take real brilliance and determination to put into practice. It meets the Adelphi Charter’s demand for copyright to be fair, user-friendly and efficient, and so meets market needs in the best sense. I predict it will be a hit and look forward to the international rollout.”John Howkins – Author, The Creative Economy

“Copyright is not broken, it’s just a Ford Model-T, when what Creators now need is a Tesla Model- X. Copyright must become fluid, agile, effective, easy to use and properly understood, if it is to allow Creators to continue to Create and hence Society to Recreate. The Copyright Hub appreciates and anticipates the dimensions of the space they are working in and the people and forces working within it. The Hub’s progressive and objective approach allows them a unique perspective from which to design fit-for-purpose digital solutions to the unfit-for-purpose analogue problems Creators and their Rights currently face”Crispin Hunt- Songwriter, Record Producer, BASCA Songwriters Executive, Elected Director of PRS, Elected Director of PPL

“When I first joined the music industry I nearly got fired because a senior executive didn’t understand the difference between automatic licensing (having your right to negotiate taken away – a bad thing) and automated licensing (having a machine do the hard work on your terms – a very good thing). The Copyright Hub reduces that confusion and will ensure that automation is considered normal.”Paul Jessop – Founder and Director, County Analytics Ltd

“The Copyright Hub is a great British innovation in itself. Making it easier to find and use copyrighted works in the digital age is something that will help creators and consumers alike. Of course we are all creators now; publishing photos, videos, music, code, art and designs digitally and it is equally vital to educate how to protect intellectual property created by individuals.”Eddy Leviten – Director General, Alliance for Intellectual Property

“Technology is ripping change through nearly every creative industry – transforming the user and creator experience – yet the rights management landscape remains as if typewriters and wax cylinders were the apple of the consumers eye – The Copyright Hub is a fine example of the positive disruption we should embrace”Mark Lawrence – CEO, Association for Electronic Music

“The creation of a centralised “safe house” for copyright creators to trade their intellectual property through effective licensing is an eminently sensible idea. The Copyright Hub will be a very welcome conduit and enabler to push trading boundaries through collaborative global opportunities”Dids Macdonald – CEO, Anti Copying in Design (ACID)

“The Copyright Hub is leading the way in the creation of frictionless licensing for photography and other visual works. With the entire world as the marketplace, the Hub is establishing the new business model necessary for rights holders to benefit in an ongoing manner and for consumers to easily use and enjoy those works.”Eugene Mopsik – Advocacy Strategist, PLUS Director

“The Copyright Hub Foundation is something of a revolutionary facilitator to counter the evolutionary flux that creators and rights managers presently find themselves in. More meaningfully, “The Hub” stands to re-align direct channels of transaction and understanding between consumer and creator. A brilliant, ambitious and empowering example of making technology work for us in a time when, as creators, we feel increasingly powerless to technology’s wield. It’s basically preserving our future heritage – and that is priceless.”Sam Obernik – Artist, Songwriter and Director of The Copyright Hub Foundation

“The Copyright Hub is an idea whose time has come – it takes advantage of the internet to make licensing clear, simple and transparent, facilitating millions of transactions in a way that was simply impossible in an analogue age. It’s a visionary initiative.”Lord Puttnam CBE – House of Lords

“Educational establishments have the potential to make considerable use of the Hub since not all resources required in teaching and learning are covered by collective licences or exceptions. The Hub is providing a simple, transparent, direct and cost effective method to connect users and creators”Alan Rae – Copyright consultant, Colleges Scotland and Director, The Copyright Hub Foundation

“All too often we hear that the law of copyright and licensing of digital works is just too complex online, and that it is somehow holding back progress of the digital economy. The Copyright Hub proves the naysayers wrong and sits at the very heart of the digital economy, hiding complexity and making copyright work in the digital age for rightsholders and users alike.”Angela Mills Wade – Executive Director, European Publishers Council

“The Copyright Hub recognises that Art, Science and Music must be protected by Copyright – a Human Right – which allows creators to benefit from the fruits of their labour, benefiting society as a whole.”Bruce Woolley – Songwriter, Producer, Performer

Kendra Initiative

Kendra Initiative is an international media, technology, academic and industry alliance. The mission is to foster an open distributed marketplace for digital media including films, music, images, games and text.

Kendra Hub is an open source dashboard application for rights owners and media makers, enabling users to manage and track their digital media assets, collaborations and associated rights. The application will integrate with social networks, copyright management organisations and online distribution points. Copyright Hub services will also be integrated into Kendra Hub.

Ministry of Copyright, Cultural and Creators Assets

“MOCA is a leading international business consulting company specialising within the media industry. As experts in copyright legislation, technology and business affecting the creative industry MOCA provides strategic and operational advice alongside automated technical solutions to deliver successful sales opportunities and increased brand exposure for your work.

With extensive cross-sector expertise and wide-ranging connections with policy and decision makers in industry and government, in education, cultural institutions and the media MOCA is informed and up-to-date with industry changes and innovations and able to give support with the demands of consumers, evolving technologies and new distribution methods to protect content and grow business.

MOCA directors have been involved in the Hub since its inception, actively engaging creators and business in image and footage licensing and promoting Hub identifiers to the cultural heritage sector.”